On the 20th anniversary of the execution in Nigeria of social activist Ken Saro Wiwa and other eight members of the Ogoni indigenous community by Sani Abacha´s dictatorship, Friends of the Earth International is circulating several images of the disaster caused by Shell and the oil industry in this African country.

Ken Saro Wiwa, a poet, was one of the founders of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People created in 1990 to protest against the pollution caused by oil companies in these territories. The activist led protests and was the spokesperson of the Movement. For this he was persecuted and arrested several times, until the military regime sentenced him to death by hanging under false accusations of murder and through a legal process that didn´t allow him to defend himself.

After several years of legal efforts, in June 2009 Shell was forced to pay 15.5 million dollars to the families of the activists murdered by the Nigerian Dictatorship in 1995 who blamed the company of being accomplices of the deaths.

From prison, Ken Saro Wiwa wrote his defense arguments, which were silenced by the dictatorship. “In my innocence of the false charges I face here, in my utter conviction, I call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their rights. History is on their side. God is on their side”, stated part of the text written by the Nigerial social activist.